A Texas mother is claiming that a reflection of the sun from a back seat mirror had caused her baby's car seat to burn and smoke.
On January 23, Amanda DeAngelis wrote a Facebook post warning other parents about the dangers of training a mirror on a car seat.
“This is my baby’s car seat smoking because there is a mirror on the back of the seat so I can see her,” DeAngelis said on a Facebook video. “I just took her out of the seat and smelled smoke and saw the smoke coming up. And this is caused by the sun’s reflection into the car seat. Thank God I made a two-second stop and found this before something happened."
She added that she was not trying to place blame on Britax, the car seat's manufacture, or Eddie Bauer, who produced the mirror. DeAngelis said she just wanted to warn other parents.
Britax said in a statement to KNAX-TV said that the car seat's flame retardants worked in this incident.
“Direct sunlight reflecting off shiny objects in a car can be dangerous," Britax said in its statement. "The federal government requires all car seats and the interior of vehicles to meet flame retardant standards. In this incident, the flame retardants in the car seat did their job.”
"As always, parents and caregivers should exercise caution when using any after-market car seat accessories, including back seat mirrors."
